The life and times of the most recent parish priest of St Joseph`s and St Wilfrid`s, Gateshead.

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

The 300th anniversary: James Radcliffe.

From an old Roman Catholic family, with their seat at Dilston, Hexham
in Northumberland, James Radcliffe was the eldest son of Lady Mary
Tudor, an illegitimate daughter of
Charles ll, and Edward Radcliffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater. At the age
of thirteen he was sent to Saint-Germain at the request of Queen Mary,
widow of James ll, to be a companion for the young Prince James Francis
Edward.

Here he was tutored
at the Jesuit College of St Louis le Grand in Paris. Inheriting the
Derwentwater Estates in 1705, he returned to England four years later
and took up residence at Dilston, becoming a prominent figure in
Northern society and a focus for Jacobite support. He was noted for
being a man of great charm and kindness, and was highly thought of by
friends and tenants alike. In 1712 he married Anna Maria Webb, a
Catholic heiress, and left Dilston for a period of two years to live at
Hatherop in Gloucestershire, a property belonging to the family of his
wife. During this time, the old manor house of the Radcliffes was being
rebuilt and transformed into Dilston Hall, a grand and stately mansion,
more befitting the needs of the fashionable young Earl. Returning
here with his wife and baby son in July 1714, it was only one month
before Queen Anne was dead and George of Hanover was established on the
English throne. Jacobite unrest broke out and gradually became
widespread. By the following year plans to restore the exiled Stuarts by
force of arms were well underway. The Earl was a key player in the 1715
Rising in which he took an active part. After surrendering at
Preston, he was attainted and condemned to death. Attempts to win a
reprieve were in vain and he was beheaded on Tower Hill on 24 February
1716. His remains were secretly conveyed north for burial in Dilston
Chapel. As the cortège bearing his coffin reached the outskirts of
Durham City, the skies were spectacularly lit up by a brilliant display
of the aurora borealis (the Northern Lights). It was immediately
rumoured that this was an omen of heaven's wrath at the death of the
gentle and popular Earl. The lights were afterwards known in the north
of England as 'Lord Derwentwater's Lights'. With this superstition the
Derwentwater legend was born, and the dramatic and tragic events of the
Earl's short life were soon firmly entrenched in Northumbrian folklore.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13 Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?Judges 6.12